Flames
by minlake14
Summary: Lucy is alone a scared, or herself, her parents, everything. Lying in room burnt black, that she would much rather not be in. Having to look at all the damage she caused. She has lost all hope, but not completely surely? Oneshot


**A/N: I was feeling a little odd but this thought came into my head and I thought X-men would be the best for it. Hope you like it please review.**

Lucy stepped back from the chaos around her, her lips trembling, tears cascading down her wet face. Everything was burnt, but no fire remained. Her little sisters favourite toy lay down in the corner, the face of the bear slightly disfigured, and the fur black with soot. She very slowly crept forward to the bear, her legs close to giving way and leaving her in a heap on the floor. She picked it up and brushed the soot off with her sleeve; the bear, even now, bore no resemblance to the pristine white thing her sister would take everywhere. Lucy's legs finally gave way and she was a heap on the floor once more.

The room looked a disaster, dark burnt patches covered most of the walls, the sofa was in shreds as if a dog had been clawing at it. The whole place looked suspended in time, like a crime scene that had been boarded up. There was an awful sense of horror, and danger that hang in the air. Something that Kate never wanted to think about, she wanted to leave. Leave all of it behind. She didn't know where her family had gone, and she knew they wouldn't want to know where she was, and for that reason she didn't want to know where they were either.

She had no intentions to cause what had happened, she just lost it. She had no control over herself, and it scared everyone, along with herself. She didn't know what she was, or how she could do what she did. She wanted anything to just go back years and years to the point when it happened first, the point at which she left normal; the sole point where her family still considered her family. Her hands still were warm from the fire, her body still felt hot from the inside, but she knew no fire, or energy or whatever it was, was going to make another outburst.

The flames hurt her, but her lack of control meant that she would burst out at any time. This lead to her living in fear all the time, being locked away in her cold bedroom, rarely going out into the city where she lived. The only thing she came to know was fear, fear of herself, fear of her parents and of what they would do to her. Fears she couldn't cope with, fears that expelled in fire.

It had been a rather long time since her sister had been able to look her in the eyes; Lily always kept her distance looking to the ground whenever Lucy crept out of her room. She loved her little sister so much and hurt more than the fire did that she feared her so much. What she wouldn't give to dance around the room with her, or to take her to the park; she would do anything for Lilly to feel some kind of love toward her again.

She had basically been abandoned by her parents when she was seven, the first time it happened. It had been the day her grandma had passed away, whom she was very close to, she was extremely upset and wound up when she heard. She then burst into flames, screaming as it happened from the pain. It caused her sheets on her bed to burn along with her mum's hands, which was comforting her at the time. Her mum's hands didn't ever heal, and though she never really minded, as deep down she still loved her daughter, even though she rarely showed it; she had seen the pain in her daughter's eyes and heard the awful screams. She knew Lucy couldn't control it but never said her husband on the other hand wasn't there and didn't understand how she couldn't control it or the pain it caused, unfortunately Lucy's mum never said and so he just stared at his wife's scorched hands and took it as Lucy's rebellion.

The flames just expelled burning everything around, but the flames didn't leave Lucy's body for long as the expelled soon after they had been sent out. Her parents were to scared or embarrassed to see a doctor, for fear of anyone else realising, hence her always staying inside her own room. To anyone other than her mum, dad and sister she'd died just before her eighth birthday down to pneumonia. They felt as though she had died as well, Like Lucy had left and in its place a monster in a little girl's body bursting into flames whenever she felt the need. As you can expect this didn't make Lucy love her parents as much as she used to, they were her parents any way, and she didn't want them to fear her. She wanted to be normal.

There was one year where it never happened for whatever reason. A single lucky year amongst five other bad ones. This had been the worst and the last outbreak since that brief period of normality. However even during that year she still wasn't allowed out or got anything back from her parents or sister. She spent most of her lonely days reading and trying not to burst into flames. She wasn't allowed new books and was shut up when she was seven. She would scourge the house when everyone was out for something, by the time she was ten though she gave up and lied in her bed all day dreaming of a better, normal life.

She was still crying when the rain came lasing down on the large windows. She didn't care anymore at all; it wasn't going to get any better. She had no one left now, everyone thought of her as dead, and she'd been left without money food or her family. She had no desire to stand up anymore and just hugged Lily's disfigured bear to her chest as time passed. No one was coming for her; she would die within in the month at least.

She had soon after the flames had started, the pain was too much for her to handle. But it still burnt through her when she crashed into the floor, and when she woke up again in a darkened, sooty, burnt room all alone, it still was warm and ached. Her parents had got ready to leave when they saw her daughter's hands glowing a dim read that got brighter until it was yellow, and flames were dancing on her hands, and shooting out of her fingers. Her chest would concave for a second then rip open in a blazing display that caused the most pain. They left when her eyes closed slowly and she fell sideways on to the floor.

No one knew as much as she did the horror of waking alone, and despite her parent's lack of love for her she needed someone to stroke her hair and tell her it was okay. She needed control over it and love from someone for the first time in six years. She knew her parents weren't coming back and would thought it better to die on the floor in a room left with the imprint of what she hated so much. It had caused her to lose everything, so why not die and lie peacefully without fear of combustion.

Charles tapped the side of his chair, in time with the tune that was currently in his head. Hank gave him a sharp look from the controls where he was standing. Charles noticed and stopped.

"Just a minute," Hank said as he adjusted something on the side of the clumpy helmet with various wires coming out of it.

"Sure," Charles answered while he mentally prepared himself for what he was about to do. Hank walked over a few moments later, carrying the helmet and lowered it slowly onto Charles's head. Charles closed his eyes and opened his mind and his eyes again, he looked at the world completely differently now. There were lots of people that he could freely search through, and then there were also pulsating ones in bright blue; those were what he was looking for.

Most seemed busy, leading a normal life; these weren't the specific ones Charles wanted. He wanted children to teach and help them control their mutation appropriately. He spotted various ones in schools, many with hands shot straight up in answer to a teacher's question. Then he spotted a girl crying all alone in burnt room hugging a disfigured bear, she looked awful. He knew this girl needed help; he scanned her mind to make sure. He saw a lot of things he had hoped he hadn't, loss of will to live, lonely days spent crying, parents that left her and the pain that she felt when she combusted.

He immediately took the helmet off and wheeled his chair around to the meter where it gave the directions and the name of the mutants.

"Found one?" Hank asked as he placed the helmet back on the table.

"Yes, a girl alone lost the will to live. England, I am leaving now," Charles said as he wheeled himself out of the room.

Lucy hadn't moved for hours, and still had done nothing about the tears that fell into a pool on the floor. She had no hope anymore. That was when it all changed and there was a knock on the door. She stayed silent hoping that it wasn't anyone and she'd just imagined it. The knocks continued, she hesitated before she slowly crept up to her trembling feet. She collapsed again, but managed to walk the few metres to the door. She opened it very slowly to find two men, one in a wheelchair, and a woman there, no one she knew.

"Lucy Pepper," the man in the wheel chair said, Lucy nodded very slowly.

"We are here to help you. I know that you have a mutation, you can do things others can't. I run a school where we take people like you and help you have control over it. You don't have to be alone anymore," he said. She wept even more as the women hugged her, as they walked down away from the place that had imprisoned her for seven years. She was too vulnerable to consider that they were lying, she just had her sister's bear close to her chest and wept into it and the women's shoulder in the cab that lead to the airport. They weren't tears of fear anymore; they were hope that she would have control.


End file.
